View full sizeBob Dylan will perform at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater tonight along with Wilco and My Morning Jacket. (The Birmingham News / File)

Bob Dylan can't sing? Duh.

Thanks for that 50-year-old criticism that still fails to register even in the context of the era that introduced him.

Personally, I've never understood the "Bob Dylan can't sing" claims, though many fans maintain it yet still enjoy his contributions. It just sounds like Bob Dylan. The songs wouldn't exist without it.

Just whom would you rather sing the songs he sang himself? Some "American Idol" karaoke champion?

"Bob Dylan can't sing anymore" is something you might hear later this evening, following tonight's AmericanaramA concert at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater after Dylan finishes about an hourlong set to close the evening.

So when did "can't sing" mutate into "can't sing anymore?" What Dylan does now certainly sounds different than what were used to in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and last decade. But his voice is one of many eras. This is just a new one.

Does he warble, mumble and let his classic lyrics sort of ooze out in these new "arrangements" of his timeless songs? Sure. But they're his songs. The guy is 72. I'm not making excuses for a bad performance.

But I caught the AmericanaramaA show at Aaron's Amphitheater in Atlanta last Saturday, and as a longtime Dylan fan, I left satisfied. Others weren't. I heard multiple folks insist "That was terrible" and even "Bob Dylan sucks" moments after his set, and I couldn't believe it. I guess I heard something different. Was I listening through the ears of someone who simply wanted a modern Bob Dylan concert to leave me satisfied? I honestly don't think so.

I went into the AmericanaramA show with tempered expectations, at least for Dylan's set. My mindset was I'd go hear great sets from Wilco and My Morning Jacket at their best on top of getting to see a true music icon in person, despite how past his prime he'd become, to put it nicely.

Wilco and MMJ delivered, for sure.

MMJ's set might have been the overall highlight of the near-five-hour event, playing fan favorites like "Gideon" and "Wordless Chorus" and highlights from their album "Circuital" like the title track and "Victory Dance" and closing with the thundering "One Big Holiday."

As usual, Wilco brought a nice, tight variety of tunes from nearly all their albums, including several dreamy tracks from their most recent "The Whole Love" like "The Art of Almost" and "One Sunday Morning." But the highlight came when they invited show opened Bob Weir out to play the popular Grateful Dead song "Dark Star," which transitioned into a very Dead-like trippy jam, sandwiching Wilco's "California Stars" and going back into "Dark Star" lasting about 12 minutes. As Weir walked off stage, Tweedy said to the crowd, "Didn't see that one coming."

MMJ also brought out Weir for a nice rendition of "I Know You Rider." It's too bad Weir won't play the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater tonight, though I know Richard Thompson, who played the Bama Theatre recently, will provide a nice opening act and even possible opportunities with the bands.

By the time Dylan hit the stage, the crowd seemed satisfied with the abbreviated sets from the first three acts. Dylan would provide a nice cherry on top to an already-enjoyable evening, and we'd get the aforementioned novelty of saying we'd seen a legend in the flesh.

As they set the stage, a young woman approached the microphone to implore fans not to use any cameras to record the performance, reinforcing a pretty stingy policy that night that saw security guards demanding fans delete any footage of photos they'd shot, even if they hadn't. But a social media search would prove that to be a pretty impossible task for that workforce.

Dylan's stage was dimly lit by book-ending gaslights to give it a bit of a campfire vibe as his very talented band opened with his Oscar-winning song "Things Have Changed" from the 2000 Michael Douglas film "Wonder Boys." If you're checking set lists heading into this show, you'll notice things haven't really changed at all, given Dylan is playing roughly 90 percent of the same show each time maybe rotating three songs on top of a firmly established skeleton.

So you'll probably hear that opening track along with familiar Dylan staples like "Tangled Up in Blue," "Love Sick," "She Belongs to Me" and "Simple Twist of Fate."

One of the rotating songs I got was a variation on "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" I didn't even recognize until about midway through the rendition. Instead of the iconic 1962 folk ballad structure we're used to, Dylan sat at a piano and morphed it into a much mellower rock version.

Also, if Dylan picks up a guitar, let me know because he didn't in Atlanta. Not once. Maybe that's the norm now, but I didn't expect to sit through a Bob Dylan show without the guy playing a guitar the entire time. Not that it affected my experience, it was just a little jarring. He opted for the piano and harmonica, or nothing at all, instead.

Still, I walked away from that amphitheater refreshed instead of disappointed. Sure, I'd lowered my expectations, but that was probably unfair. Instead of just "seeing" Bob Dylan in person, I heard the man play his songs however he pleased. They weren't mangled, they were rearranged by a guy who'd been playing them for upwards of 50 years. What would you do?

So go in knowing Dylan can't and could never sing, if that's how you feel or ever felt. Fine, he can't sing and never could. There's nothing like it. That's why we love Bob Dylan. Have fun tonight.